Description
This book collects Thomas Nagel's recent philosophical reflections on topics of fundamental interest: ethics, moral psychology, science and religion, death, the holocaust, and the metaphysics of mind. Among the figures discussed are Peter Singer, Alvin Plantinga, Christine Korsgaard, Tony Judt, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, T. M. Scanlon, Ronald Dworkin, Samuel Scheffler, Daniel Kahneman, Jonathan Haidt, Joshua Greene, and Daniel Dennett. Nagel consistently defends a realist interpretation of moral truth and resists reductive attempts to subsume ethics to psychology and evolutionary theory. He also defends a pluralistic conception of the content of morality as opposed to utilitarianism, one that includes deontological elements such as rights and special responsibilities. A realist outlook also informs his discussion of metaphysical and epistemological questions.The book closes with tributes to a number of people Nagel has known over the course of his career. The essays are all addressed to a general audience, and should appeal not only to philosophers but to anyone interested in current attempts to understand human life, human values, and how we fit into the world.
Table of Contents
1. Analytic Philosophy and Human LifeLife and Death2. Tony Judt, Life and Memory3. After We've Gone4. Can We Survive?5. Assistance in Dying6. TheresienstadtEthics7. Peter Singer and You8. Effective Altruism9. Korsgaard, Kant, and Our Fellow Creatures10. Regret and Its Limits11. Four Women12. Law, Morality, and Truth13. The Illusion of Tax FairnessMoral Psychology14. Scanlon on the Reality of Reasons15. Kahneman's Thinking16. The Cortex and the Trolley Problem17. Modular Morality18. Fictions and IdealsReality19. The Core of Mind and Cosmos20. Plantinga on Science and Religion21. Is Metaphysics Possible?22. Creators of the Modern Mind23. Dennett's IllusionsTributes24. Betsy Dworkin 1933-200025. Robert Nozick 1938-200226. John Rawls 2021-200227. Bernard Williams 1929-200328. Donald Davidson 1917-200329. Peter Strawson 1919-200630. Ronald Dworkin 200631. John Searle 200932. Ronald Dworkin 1931-201333. Barry Stroud 1935-2019
